Scribo Scribere

It’s a small, little thing, and yet –

with button eyes and nose, and padded paws,

pink all over, a mouth turned up in a coy smile,

wrapped up in a t-shirt: I heart New York –

so long it’s sat atop my bed, on the coverlet, against the wall,

and drunk in all my dreams as I lie

testing out the borders of morphean realms,

the slipping, tripping by of speeding time

(that never once relents, no matter what we do),

I wonder if it knows me now,

and what it would say to me, if it could,

a humble thing of origins low.

Would it greet me with a smile –

the edges of its sewn-on mouth ever upwards –

and say to me,

“I know you. Long I’ve sat

and watched you wile away the hours,

sitting pitting your mind against eternal philosophy.

I’ve seen you in sadness, and also happy,

lapping up every bit of joy that comes your way.

My eyes have been prone to observe

your cunning coyness, lovers come and go,

and times when you’ve been lonely without recall.

When you were little you’d cradle, cuddle me,

locked in a huddle so serenely silent:

in all my years I won’t forget that embrace.

Since then, I’ve seen the time sally forth,

slipping tripping so canny keenly by;

relentless ever, leaving us behind

while sturdy silent it moves through the years.

So long ago I knew you, and I know you still.

I’m locked still in that tight embrace,

that held me all those years ago.

But time is unforgiving, and soon – I have no doubt –

you’ll be carried candidly ever

onto other paths that lead away.

Always, I hope, you’ll hold me tightly locked

within that sweet embrace, of memory,

that alone embers the essence of what we are.

Hold me ever there, and run flying

through the years, and live, love, seek, and find.”

Yes, would it say this to me,

and sit smiling silent as snow tinges the trees,

or green rules the blooming earth,

summer sun bakes the ground,

or orange leaves fall to the surface of the world,

and lead me leaping forward into life

to test my strength against the waters

and to fathom and divine truths

that rule what and who we are in this life?

Is this what my old friend would say to me?